Adaptation Design Tool

Course Description

The Adaptation Design Online Course is designed to help coral reef managers incorporate climate-smart design into their management activities by considering the effects of climate change on ecosystem stressors and implications for effective management. It describes the process of incorporating climate change adaptation into management plans using existing planned actions as a starting point, and also guides development of additional climate-smart strategies as needed.

Course Outline

Lesson 1: Principles of Climate-Smart Planning – key concepts of Climate-Smart Conservation, including why and how to brainstorm and design management actions to account for the effects of climate change. (20 minutes)

Lesson 2: Introduction to the Adaptation Design Tool – overview of the Adaptation Design Tool, how it works, and best practices for using it effectively. (20 minutes) 

Lesson 3: Applying Climate-Smart Design Considerations to Existing Conservation & Management Actions – demonstrates Activity 1 of the Adaptation Design Tool, which applies climate-smart design considerations to

1. 1. Identify climate change impacts on the effectiveness of your management actions
   2. Consider what changes should be made to the actions based on those impacts.

(45 minutes)

Lesson 4: Expanding the List of Adaptation Options & Course Conclusion – demonstrates Activity 2 of the Adaptation Design Tool, which identifies gaps in your existing plan, helps you brainstorm new actions to fill those gaps, and concludes with next steps on how the tool results can be used to inform other steps of the Climate-Smart Conservation Cycle. (30 minutes)